"Scientists changed one species of bacteria into another by performing a complete gene swap.

It's a step in the quest to one day create artificial organisms, part of a bigger project to custom-design microbes that could produce cleaner fuels. But the way it was performed, dubbed a "genome transplant," has genetics specialists buzzing.

"This is equivalent to changing a Macintosh computer to a PC by inserting a new piece of software," declared genome-mapping pioneer J. Craig Venter, senior author of the new research published Thursday by the journal Science."

Um, haven't any of these guys seen (or read) The Andromeda Strain or The Fly? I think we may have to start brushing up on killing science experiments gone wrong.